The Human Pyramid Team Building Game

Human pyramid team building games come in several forms, and make a great physical team building activity to get your team working together. Here’s how to run the human pyramid game in all of its forms.

Summary

Using purely people power to build a pyramid or tower. The most common form of human pyramid is made by four or five team members kneeling down on all fours, and then the next three climb on their backs and make another layer. The human tower approach involves the team members standing in a circle facing inwards. four or five make the base layer, and then three or four on the next layer up by standing on their team mates shoulders.

Purpose and Objective

The objective of the human pyramid team building game is to see how high the team can build a tower or pyramid using just the members of their team.

Outcomes

Apart from a few bruises and a variety of colorful words, this team building activity will demonstrate teamwork, leadership, communication and also foster team bonding.

Benefits

The human pyramid challenge requires strategy and planning, and a bit of trial and error. It helps the team members to bond and develop teamwork skills to adapt to situations as they happen, especially if they don’t go according to plan. Being a physical team building activity, the team will get immediate feedback as to how well they are doing.

This team building activity is great in that it requires very little preparation. You do however need to think carefully about how the team members will respond to having to physically stand or kneel on top of each other.

How to Run the Human Pyramid Team Building Game

When you brief the teams, you will need to make it clear what success looks like. Do they have to hold their human pyramid for 30 seconds? Do they have to reach a minimum height? Does it have to be freestanding or can the team use equipment?

Complications and Things That can go Wrong

The human pyramid game involves physically stacking people, so there is the risk of the pyramid collapsing onto the people on the bottom. The higher the tower, the bigger the risk of injury. You will need to take all reasonable precautions to minimise injury. You can do this by getting the team to build their pyramid on grass, in water or on gym crash mats.

Human Pyramid Team Building With Purpose

Human pyramid team building game with a purpose

Some people find it pointless to just try to see how high you can get using a human pyramid. So, to give the teams purpose, give them something to reach for. String some form of prize on rope across the top of the game area. This could be a card box with sweets in or something they need to do the next part of their course. They then know what they are aiming for and it will drive the design of the tower or pyramid.
Make sure that the goal is reachable with the number of players in each team. Or, you could leave it to them to work out that the teams have to join together to get their prize.